Awakened
by Jakoby
Summary: AU fic It's a Harry wakes from a coma story. I know it's a cliché but I hate it that Sirius died and this is the only way I can write about him. Hopefully I'll make it sound all right. Constructive criticism is great. Please review, I can see from my stat
1. The final battle

Harry sat dejectedly on the backseat as his uncle drove speedily home, muttering at the traffic around him. As he sat staring out of the window, slowly tear began to squeeze their way out of his eyes and trail down his face. His mind mercilessly replayed the events of that fateful night at the ministry. Again and again he relived the moment that Sirius fell into the veil. The only father figure he had ever known, was gone.

As soon as the car pulling into the drive of No 4. Privet Drive, Harry shot out of the car and ran up the stairs three at a time. Crashing through the door he threw himself onto his bed. After his uncle had lugged his school things into the house and thrown them into the cupboard under the stairs he strode up after his nephew determined to have a few words with the 'good for nothing brat.' He walked into Harry's room to see Harry sitting on his bed, head sunk into his hands crying.

"What the hell's the matter with you?" he demanded sharply.

Harry looked up, stricken.

"What do you care?" he shot back. Unbelievably, he saw Vernon's face soften for a split second before he glared back at Harry.

"I asked you a question, brat."

"I, Sirius..he died."

Vernon looked shocked and as Harry went back to crying he slowly left the room closing the door behind him. He walked back down the stairs feeling, for the first time, sorry for his nephew. Death was a hard thing to deal with.

'So that was why he had such a large escort of freaks at the station.' He thought. By the time he had reached the kitchen however, all thoughts of remote kindness towards his nephew had vanished. Knowing the boy, he had been there when his god-father had died, having a way of finding or looking for trouble.

'Must have been that man they're all scared of. Lord Voldieport.' Suddenly he was filled with dread. The boy must have got away. That meant the man would be after him putting Vernon and his family in danger. The boy had to go. He wasn't prepared to endanger his own family for the boy's sake.

"He can go and live with those Weasels or whatever. He can't stay here, not now." Vernon said to Petunia.

"But…"

"NO, my word is final. He can leave as soon as possible."

"How about now?" said a voice from the hallway. Vernon turned to see Harry with tears stains on his face holding his wand about to take his school things upstairs.

"Now look here boy,"

"No, I've put up with this for long enough. I'm going." He turned and walked quickly away out the front door. Part of him was sad to leaving the family he had grown up with, even if it was the Dursleys. The majority of his mind was rejoicing to be finally gone. He'd ask Remus to collect his school things when he got to London, when he got to, Sirius' house. Just thinking the name made his heart break at the thought of never seeing Sirius again.

Before he had taken more than 10 steps out of the house, an owl swooped down and dropped an envelope onto his head. As it fell to the floor he saw the Hog warts crest and PRIVATE stamped onto the front. HE reached eagerly for it and ripped it apart. Several folded sheets fell into his hands. The first was a letter from Professor Dumbledore.

_Dear Mr Potter,_

_Due to circumstances that are unfolding around us it was felt beneficial to send out the fifth year OWL results before the designated date. Well done on your results. I have enclosed a list of materials which you might find useful for the months ahead of you._

_Yours sincerely, Professor Dumbledore._

Harry shuddered at the implied message in the letter and took up his grade list.

Astronomy: P

Charms, Magical: O

Charms, Theory: E

Defence Against the Dark Arts: O

Herbology: E

History of Magic: P

Potions: E

Transfiguration: O

Care of Magical Creatures: O

Divination: A

His face fell at the E for Potions as Snape had said he would only accept Outstanding for NEWT levels. But just as quickly brightened at the number of Outstanding's and Exceeds Expectation's he had received. He was still in an elated mood five minutes later when black billowing smoke started to surround him.

"So, Potter. You think you can escape and I will forget all about you." A voice sounded from nearby. Harry took in a sharp breath at the sound of Voldemort's voice. Suddenly, anger started to build up inside him at this, **_thing_**, which had invaded his life. Prevented him from even having a normal life and then taking away everything he cared about in one swift action.

"Come on then, Tom!" he yelled into the darkness.

"Kill me now! I've got nothing else to live for!"

A cold laugh sounded from right in front of his face.

"Oh, very melodramatic, Harry. You should be on the stage. No, I've got something much more interesting planned than a plain killing. You have proved many timed that you are no ordinary boy, I want a real match."

'He must be crazy.' Harry thought desperately. There was no way he could win in a duel against the most powerful wizard in several generations. Swiftly the smoke vanished as if had never been. Harry looked around him and saw that he was standing in a ring facing the dark lord.

Voldemort grinned manically,

"Guard" he whispered. Harry slowly brought up his wand and with the speed born from absolute terror dove to one side as the killing curse shot past where he had been standing seconds before. Harry jumped up and screamed the first curse he could think of.

"ACCIO!" Voldemort's face suddenly contorted in pain and a brilliant white light surrounded the two of them. As he collapsed to the floor, Harry felt his body filled with a suddenly rush of energy and power. He had no time to reflect on this as Voldemort growled and grabbing his wand pointed it and yelled 'CRUCIO!' towards Harry. But, nothing. No jet of light came out of his wand to hit Harry, no reaction from his wand at all. He tried again. 'Crucio!' but there was again no response. Voldemort looked at Harry in terror as they both realised what had happened. Somehow, with Harry's Accio spell, he had summoned Voldemort's very power into himself. Tom had become a squib.

Harry, his face set, bore down on the powerless man who was lying on the floor. He pointed his wand towards his former enemy and slowly whispered the spell that had started the entire process, nearly 16 years ago.

"_Avada Kedavra_." He turned his head away from the flash of green light and when he looked back he saw just a man who looked almost like the man who had terrified generations of wizards. Tom Riddle was dead.

But Harry had no time to savour the joy of finally being free of his adversary. He fell to his knees as pain erupted in his head. The world went black and he fell into unconsciousness.

Slowly, Harry opened his eyes. He was in what looked like a hospital. Looking down he saw that he was wearing a hospital gown although in his hand was still clasped his OWL results. 'Were on earth am I?' he thought in bewilderment. Suddenly a machine that he was wired to started beeping madly and a moment later a nurse bustled in who jumped at the sight of Harry awake.

"You, you're awake?"

"I guess so. Where am I?"

"St. Mungo's. Bless my soul; I can't believe you've woken." She came swiftly across the room and hugged him. She finally let him and walking out said,

"I'll just go and inform your parents."

Harry watched her go in confusion. His parents, didn't this woman know who he was?

Down the corridor at the reception the woman was speaking into a fire.

"Yes, Mrs Potter. Your son is awake."


	2. Family

_Awakened: Chapter 2_

A few minutes later the nurse walked back into the room.

"Well, I've just informed your parents that you are now awake. They should be here any minute. I'll send them here when they arrive." With that she walked out again.

Harry lay back into the pillow and stared at the ceiling. His mind was in a whirlwind. The last thing he remembered was the fight with Voldemort and receiving his OWL results, which for some reason were still in his hand. As he tried to wrap his mind around what was happening there was a knock at the door. He looked up and saw Professor Dumbledore standing in the doorway. Harry smiled with relief. Finally, someone to explain things.

"May I come in Harry?"

"Of course Sir. Are you going to tell me what's going on?"

"I will, to the best of my ability try to explain although I will not be able to give you the reasons for the simple reason that I don't know myself."

"That's ok. I'll stick to what rather than why for the time being."

"Well, first of all let me ask you some questions. Who are you?"

"Harry Potter."

"Good, now who am I?"

"You're Albus Dumbledore. Head Teacher at Hogwarts."

"What year are you in at Hogwarts?"

"I've just finished the fifth year. Going into the 6th year after the summer."

"Good, well everything seems to be right. Now, Harry. I need to explain a few things that will be different to what you know. When you were born Voldemort was very powerful, that much you know. But here, he disappeared the day after you were born and no-one knows why. He returned a year ago and has resumed his domination of the wizarding world. Killing muggles and any wizards who stand against him. When you were one, your parents and yourself were driving up to Scotland to visit me, don't ask me why your father decided to purchase a car, and you were involved in a head on collision with a tanker of some kind. All of you escaped with relatively few injuries but you were thrown into a coma. You have been in that coma for 15 years, until 10 minutes ago when you woke up. Now I don't know how but you have been living in a magic based waking dream. It has let you live a life in order to give you experience. You have encountered Voldemort have you not?"

"Yes. Almost every year since I've been at Hogwarts. He tried to steal the Philosophers stone but I stopped him, he opened the Chamber of Secrets but I killed his basilisk, he came back to power in my fourth year and killed Cedric Diggory at the final of the triwizard tournament, and he came to the ministry of magic a few weeks ago to steal the prophecy. The Order tried to stop him and his Death Eaters, many of the aurors died."

"Do not feel sad Harry, none of the events happened in real life. It was all to prepare you. When was the last time that you meet Voldemort?"

Harry told him what had happened in the moments before he woke up.

"Ah, I though as much. This dream has been top prepare you to confront Voldemort. There is no-one powerful enough to defeat him but you."

Harry blanched at the thought of facing the dark Lord again. Dumbledore put his hand on Harry's shoulder.

"You have defeated him once Harry. You can do it again, this time with the order by your side. But, now I must ask you to keep these things to yourself. Your family believes that I cast a spell over you to educate you about our world. They do not know about your encounters with Voldemort. It will take many people a long time to adjust themselves to the fact that you are our saviour."

Harry sighed; he'd thought that it would all be over now. But, he thought, at least he wasn't the boy who lived any more. He reached up to his forehead, there was no lightning scar.

"I will talk to you later about the life you led. We must enrol you into Hogwarts. I assume you were sorted into Gryffindor?"

He grinned.

"Yeah. Sir, how close was my dream to the real world? Are the same people here?"

"I believe that everyone you came across whilst in your coma is here and alive in our world."

Harry looked up, unable to believe it.

"So, Sirius?"

"Your Godfather is alive and well. I believe he is coming to see you with your parents and sister. I will leave now, but remember what I said Harry. They will need time to adjust to you being awake. Let us take things one step at a time."

"Yes sir. Oh, do you want these? It was what I was holding along with my wand when I woke up."

Dumbledore took the exam results and looked at them.

"Yes, these will make things easier when it comes to September. What do you want do when you leave Hogwarts?"

"I thought about becoming an Auror."

Dumbledore smiled faintly and swept out of the room.

Harry lay back down. A million thought were rushing through his head. His parents were alive. Sirius was alive! He had a sister. He wasn't to live with the Dursleys. He couldn't believe that in just a short time, his life had been so totally changed. After a few minutes the nurse appeared at his door.

"Mr Potter, your parents are here."

Harry's head shot up and he looked over and saw the figures of James and Lily Potter in the doorway. They were identical to the figures that he had seen 4 years ago in the mirror of Erised. Albeit a few years older. Lily was the first to move, as she ran the short distance and throw herself on her son, hugging him fiercely. Harry hugged her back with every fibre of his being. He couldn't believe that this was happening. James walked over to join them and ruffled his son's hair.

"I can't believe you're awake." Lily whispered.

"I can't believe you're alive." Harry whispered back.

Lily slowly let go of her son.

"What do you remember about your life?" James asked

Harry took a deep breath and began to tell them about the life he knew. Missing out almost every reference to Voldemort. He almost broke down when he told them about Sirius' death. Although he had to change the events that led up to it.

"Well, that's one event that I can assure you is not the same here." James said walking out. He stuck head out of the door and beckoned. Walking back in he was followed be Sirius Black.

"Sirius!" Harry cried. He launched himself from the bed into his Godfathers arms. He buried his head in Sirius' chest as the man wrapped his arms around his godson. He looked over at Lily and James with tears in his eyes.

"He knows me?"

"Apparently you were in the dream that Dumbledore cast. You were the closest thing he had to a father figure. He dreamt that he lived with Lily's sister's family. Ironically, Lily and I died in a car crash. But there was one point that the dream was inaccurate. Megan."

As Sirius extracted himself from Harry's grip and put him back on the bed James left the room once again. A few moments later he returned followed by a girl of about 14. She had the same unruly black hair as Harry and James and she also had her mother's eyes. Seeing Harry sitting up in his bed she flew across the floor and threw herself on him. Harry held her as she cried in his shoulder and looked in confusion at his parents.

"Harry, this is your sister. Megan."

"I have, a sister?" Harry asked incredulously.

"No, I do this to everyone who wakes up from a coma." said a muffled voice. Megan looked up at her brother as he laughed.

"Megan, why don't you tell your brother about school while we go see the people about getting him released." James said.

"Welcome to the real world kiddo." He said smiling down at Harry. Lily placed a kiss on her son's head and the three of them left Harry and Megan alone.

Harry looked down at his sister.

"Did they tell you what I've been dreaming?"

"Yeah." Megan proceeded to tell him about her life at school.

"Well, my best friend, Ginny she's in Gryffindor too; she's got about 5 brothers."

"6 actually."

"Oh yeah, I always forget Percy."

Harry laughed,

"Do you play quidditch?" he asked her.

"Of course, I'm a chaser. But Gryffindor aren't doing too well. We're got Ginny's brother Ron as seeker and he's terrible. But we're going to have a new Captain when we come back so the team might change a bit. Did you play?"

"Yeah a bit. So what teachers do you have?"

"I expect you know them all. Snape, McGonangall, Binns, Flitwick, Trelawny, Hagrid, Sprout, oh and Remus for DADA."

"Remus is still a teacher?"

"Yeah, he's been teaching it ever since I've been there. So who do you remember from your dream?"

"Well, there's Ron and Hermione. Ginny as well, and Fred and George. Seamus and Dean and Neville. Oh and Malfoy."

At the mention of Draco's name Megan smiled and went pink. Harry looked at her in shock.

"Please don't tell me what I think that smile means."

Megan looked confused.

"I guess your dream was a bit different to real life. Draco lives at Hogwarts with Snape ever since his father went over to Voldemort. He flatly refused to join him, even after his father put him under the Cruciatus curse. Maybe if you got to know him, you'd like him, I do."

Harry snorted.

"Well, maybe Dumbledore made him like that in your dream. Maybe he didn't want everything to be easy for you."

"I guess." Before he could say any more, Lily appeared at the door holding some clothes an a huge grin

"They're letting you go today."

Megan squealed with delight and hugged Harry again. He grinned and reached for the clothes.

"Come on Meg. You'll have plenty of time to hug him when we get home."

Harry grinned at the word 'home'. It held a whole new meaning now,


	3. A new home and new stuff

_Awakened 3_

Harry stepped gingerly out of the fire place, shaking the soot from his clothes. He glared at Megan who was standing in front of him soot free. Floo powder was not his favourite way to travel.

"So where are we Meg?" he asked.

"This is the pub down the road from our house. We're not connected to the floo network so we always have to come here and walk home. This is going to be a bit of a shock for them, you know, seeing you."

Just then James, Lily and Sirius stepped out of the fire place.

"Come on you two." James called, walking out of the room.

"Let's go enjoy the sunshine."

Harry and Megan looked at each other for a split second and raced out of the door. Nearly knocking their father over in the process. They raced through the pub and out into the street. Their parents and god-father followed, laughing at the antics of the two kids as they chased each around. After a while they set off down the street to the Potter's house. After about 15 minutes of walking, Harry finally asked Megan,

"How far _is_ it to our house?"

Megan laughed and pointed to a building that was just coming into view.

"It's just over there. Come on I'll race you." With that she shot off towards their home. Harry started to run after her but he stopped and looked up at his new address. It was huge! About four stories high with balconies and even a mini tower. Lily caught him up and stood next to him. She slung an arm around his shoulders and smiled at him.

"Not quite what you expected?"

"N….no. I thought it would be something like the Dursley's house." Lily laughed.

"Not a chance. Your father makes more money then Vernon ever will, thus we can afford a little better." She led him through the front door and into the hallway. Harry just stood gaping. The stairs led upwards to all three floors above them. It split and in one place there were two staircases next to each other.

"Come on son, I'll show you to your room." James said starting up the stairs. Harry just nodded and followed, stuck dumb by his surroundings. His father led him up to the fourth floor at the very top of the house. There was just one corridor with three doors. James led his son to the very last one. He stopped before opening it.

"Mine and your mother's room is on the next floor down and Megan's is at the other end of the hall. The third room leads into the attic. Not much in there, just a couple of chairs and a window. I'll leave you to get settled, not that you have a lot. Never mind, we'll go shopping tomorrow." He swept Harry up into a huge bear hug.

"I'm so glad your back with us kiddo." And he turned and left.

Harry stood in front of the door; he slowly turned the handle and pushed it open. He was faced with a huge room. One wall was almost entirely window, whilst the opposite was a bookcase rather than a wall. There was a big canopy, four poster bed pushed against a third wall, covered with plush red blankets and pillows. Harry walked over to the window. True it was almost the size of the wall and let in a lot of light but it wasn't a particularly good view. It looked out over the village and all he could see were tiny people wandering around. Turning back to his room, he let out a joyful woop, took a flying leap and landed on his bed.

"You like it then?" Megan asked from the doorway.

Harry looked up at his sister.

"Are you kidding? I love it!"

She smiled and came over to sit next to him. Laying her head on his shoulder she whispered,

"Thank you."

"What for?"

"For coming back. I used to go and see you every week. I'd sit by your bed and hope that you'd come back to us and you never did. Sometimes Mum and Dad wouldn't be able to come. Mum couldn't come in for a while; she used to cry just seeing you there. Dad put on a brave face but you could tell it was tearing him apart seeing his son just lying on a hospital bed, not hearing anything he said. And me, I just wanted a brother. So yeah, thank you."

Harry pulled her into a hug.

"To tell you the truth, I always wanted a little sister."

"Watch who you're calling little." He laughed.

"You know what I mean Meg. Come on, we better go downstairs."

"Oh, I got to show you the best room in the house. Not many people get to see it, it's special." She took his hand and led him out of the room along the corridor to the attic. As she pushed the door open she spread her arms wide and walked in.

"Welcome, to the perfect room."

It was a room about twice the size of Harry's new bedroom, with a much better view. The huge window looked out in the opposite way to Harry's room. It looked out over rolling fields and rivers as far as you could possibly see. IN the room itself there were chairs and sofa's of every description lining the walls and rugs covering every inch of the floor.

"It's kind of link the room of requirement at school. Equips itself with whatever is needed. I guess, you need time to yourself." She says to him and he sits in one of the sofas.

"I guess. It's going to take a long time to get used to this whole thing." Megan turned to leave but he grabbed her hand.

"Stay with me Meg? It's been a long time since I've had a family. I don't want to waste any time." She grinned and sat down next to him to watch the sun go down. Hours later when their parents came upstairs to find out what had kept their children from food the opened the door to the attic and saw them both asleep on a sofa. Megan had her head on Harry's shoulder, who had his arms around her protectively.

"They look so sweet. Megan's waited so long for this." Lily said smiling.

"Come on, I don't want to wake them." Lily turned to leave but James stepped into the room. He crossed to a wooden chest and bringing out a blanket, covered his son and daughter.

The next morning, when they were all seated at the table in the kitchen. Lily was sitting next to Harry with her arm around her shoulders. Almost as if she thought someone was going to take her son away again.

"So what do you kids want to do today?"

"I think we should go shopping. Harry's got nothing. We need clothes and general stuff."

"That's a good idea Meg. You ok with that Harry?"

"Yeah it sounds great. Will we be going to Diagon Alley?"

"Yeah, it's got pretty much everything we're going to need. Dumbledore sent us an owl earlier saying what thing's you're going to need for September."

An hour later, they were walking through the street of Diagon Alley; which as Harry was noticing was actually quite big. It had lots of small streets going off it with muggle/wizard shops. So buying Harry new clothes was relatively easy. By the time Harry had all the clothes he would need for the time being all four of them were laden with bags.

"Oh, can we get an ice-cream, mum?" Megan pleaded.

"I suppose. Then you kids can wander around for a bit. Just don't take too long, we're got other thing to buy." After spending what seemed like hours deliberating over what flavour to have they all had ice-creams and Harry and Megan set off by themselves. They hadn't been wandering for very long when they both spotted people they knew.

"Oh this is going to be hard." Harry murmured. Megan smiled at her brother.

"Don't worry, just act as if you don't know who they are."

"Easy for you to say. He used to be my best friend."

"Meg!" a voice shouted and Ginny Weasley ran over to them with Ron following her.

"Hey Potter. You got yourself a boyfriend?"

Harry looked in surprise at Ron. He'd never heard him sound so mean and condescending. Megan glared at Ron.

"He's not my boyfriend. Not as if you'd notice the difference, you're never gonna get a girlfriend."

Ron turned bright red.

"Why don't you go any play with your little dolls, kid? Or practise your flying, you're gonna have to be three times as good as you are now if you want to get onto the team. How many times have you tried out, four?" Ron said smirking.

Harry glanced at his sister who suddenly looked extremely upset and hurt. He was rapidly overcome was a sense of protection for her. He stepped in front of Megan and looked at Ron in anger.

"Do you mind, that's my sister you just insulted. Strangely enough I don't take kindly to people who upset her, even if they are in Gryffindor."

Ron looked at him in shock.

"You….you're Harry Potter?"

"Yeah, I'd noticed that myself. Come on Meg, you two Ginny. I'm sure Ronnikins can take care of himself." With that he turned on his heel and walked away with the two girls at his side. As soon as they turned the corner Ginny burst out laughing.

"Oh my God! I've never seen him look like that, it was priceless."

Harry grinned and slung his arm around Megan's shoulders.

"You ok Meg?" She smiled up at her brother.

"Yeah I am now. Oh, Harry, this is Ginny. Gin, this is my brother Harry."

Harry looked at Ron's little sister and smiled.

"Hi Ginny."

"Hey."

Harry stood, unable to speak. This was someone who'd been his friend for the last 4 years and she didn't even know who he was. He turned on his heel and ran off in the opposite direction that they'd come from. Without looking where he was going he ran straight into a man with distinctive black hair.

"Hey, are you alright Harry?"

"Yeah, I guess. It's just; this is going to take a while to get used to."

Sirius looked at him in sympathy.

"People you thought you knew for 5 years don't know who you are?"

"Something like that."

"Well, I tell you what. I've just been given a bonus for doing not a lot so how about I get you a present?"

"As long as it's not something big, who am I to say no to a present?" Sirius laughed and steered Harry towards present type shops.

Harry wandered around with Sirius for about an hour when he saw Quality Quidditch Supplies. There in the window on display was a broom. Released the day before, it was the most expensive broom around, and for good reason. Fastest broom in the world with a ten year guarantee. Sirius watched Harry looking at the broom hungrily for a few seconds before his shoulders slumped and he trudged away. Sirius went over to have a look. The card beneath it read,

'NEW Silverfire! Only 1,500 galleons! 0-100mph in less than 5 seconds.'

Sirius just grinned and walked into the shop.

He found Harry later with his parents, buying his school things. They only had one thing left to buy. A wand. Harry wandered over to Ollivanders, opened to the door and went in.

"Mr. Potter! A pleasure sir, a pleasure indeed. Welcome home. Now, let's see what we can find." Without waiting for a reply he bustled into the over to the wall and started searching for suitable wands.

"Oh now, how about this. Holly and phoenix feather…"

"Eleven inches." Harry finished, grinning.

"Why yes. How did you know that?" Ollivander asked, looking startled.

"Just a hunch I guess." Harry took the wand and deciding not to simply wave it around he pointed it at Mr. Ollivander and said

"_Wingardium Leviosa._" Nothing. Harry looked at surprise at the wand.

"But, I don't understand. It should have worked."

"Not necessarily sir. We hardly ever find a perfect match in the first go."

Harry started to protest but he had already taken the wand back and was searching for another.

"Hmmmmm, Elm? No, not quite right. Oak, no too stubborn. Ah!"

He came back holding a black box.

"Ebony and unicorn hair, eight and a half inches, springy."

Harry took it and tried the same spell again.

"_Wingardium Leviosa._" Mr. Ollivander rose slowly into the air with a grin on his face.

"Well done sir! It's not often the first spell with a new wand works. Well done!"

Harry just grinned, and after paying the man almost danced out of the shop. He was in much higher spirits on the way home and James and Lily followed behind Harry and Megan gossiping about Harry's reaction to the present awaiting him.

Harry walked through the front door with Megan and saw a slightly broom shaped package on the floor.

"Dad, have you brought another new broom?" Megan yelled exasperatedly.

"No, I already have 3. Why?"

"Well there's one lying in the hall."

James came over to them.

"I don't know honey. Look it's got a card."

He reached down and tore open the envelope. Reading it he smiled and handed it to Harry.

"Hey Harry. Thought you cold do with a broom. Have fun. Sirius."

Harry grinned. He bent down to rip the paper off of his new broomstick. Out rolled the very broom that he had been looking at in the shop. It had a handle made of ebony and the words Silverfire in silver burned into the end of the handle. James laughed as Harry looked at in amazement.

"So are you going to try it out or what?" James asked.

Without a word Harry straddled his new broom and darted into the air. Keeping it under perfect control he flew up to the top of the stair case and hovered at the top. As Megan ran to open the front door he shot down the stairs and lying flat along the handle he shot along the hall and out of the door. James ran out followed by Megan to see him swoop around in and out of the trees. Suddenly he rose high into the air until he just a speck to his family's eyes. Then he came shooting towards the ground.

"Dad! He'll hurt himself!" Megan cried.

"Don't worry kiddo. He'll be fine." James said reassuringly, although it didn't' do anything to reassure himself.

Flying like an expert Harry pulled his broom up at the last second when he was less than a metre away from the ground. He tumbled to the floor with stars in his eyes.

"Man, I'd forgotten how great that feels."

AN: Just a couple of review thank-you's.

Adoring: Thanks for the suggestions; the chapter has now been changed. Thanks for the complements. I hope the questions were answered.

Vic: Glad you liked it. Try and read the rest lol

Avius: Cheers hunny. Dumbledore can't really explain it because he doesn't know himself. It's kinda like fate. Harry was put into the waking dream so he would be prepared to face Voldemort in the real world.


	4. Ginny

_Awakened 4_

As the summer weeks trailed on Harry spent his time alternating between spending hours flying and getting to know his family. Slowly though, the flying began to vastly out way his family. He'd found that flying was one of the perfect ways to forget things and Harry had a lot to forget. His whole now had to start again at 16 and to top it all his parents were in fact not dead at all.

The only thing Harry found easy to accept and get used to was having Megan as a sister. They grew close very quickly and Harry found that he had become extremely protective of her.

Sirius was quickly becoming an annoyance. He didn't have to look at Harry as James' replacement in his life and so kept Harry in the dark about a lot of things. Whenever his parents and Sirius were discussing the latest development about Voldemort and Harry wandered over to join them Sirius either deftly changed the subject or pushed Harry away saying,

"Nothing for you to worry about sport."

This had quickly begun to piss Harry off in the extreme. But, he decided that if Sirius wanted to act like that it was his own problem. He'd learn in time that Harry had a part to play.

One morning, Harry woke up at about 5am to sunlight streaming through his window. Groaning he levered himself up and fell out of bed. Grumbling about the maturity of his bed his got up and decided that he might as well stay up. A while later and he was sitting at the kitchen table in the warm summer sunshine eating breakfast. Just then he saw something flash by the window. Getting up he walked swiftly over to the large French doors and looked out. Up in the air he spotted a lone flying swooping around. He watched in fascination as Megan flew around the quidditch pitch. But his fascination quickly turned to pain as she got out a quaffle and started to practise shooting, badly.

After watching for about 5 minutes Harry decided that something had to be done about his sister's appalling shooting abilities. Now he could see why Ron had told her she needed to practise. Grabbing his broom from his room he flung the window open and slowly flew out to join Megan down on the pitch.

"Heya sis. Thought you could use some help."

Megan looked over at him in relief.

"Thank you so much! I need all the help I can get. But, can you play as a chaser?"

"Sure. Although I still prefer being a seeker."

Megan grinned at him and tossed the quaffle over.

"Right, now the best way to start…." And so began the morning training sessions of quidditch. Megan slowly began to improve and Harry was surprised to see his own skills as a chaser and consequently a keeper, improve as well.

About 2 weeks into the holiday Harry was lying on his bed reading through his 6th year spell book when Megan came running into his room.

"Harry, you know you love me and would do anything to help me out."

He grinned.

"I suppose, what do you want?"

She sighed with relief.

"Would you come with me to the Burrow to see Ginny? She say's she's going insane being in a house with 6 brothers. Do you think mum and dad would let her come and stay here for a bit?"

"Course they will. Come on, let's go save Gin from the house of the Weasley's."

10 minutes later they were standing at the door of the Burrow waiting to be let in. Harry was extremely nervous. Partly because of his last meeting with Ron and partly because these were people that he'd grown to know and love and his own family.

Mrs Weasley opened the door to let them in.

"Megan! It's lovely to see you; Ginny said you might be stopping by."

"It's great to see you too Molly. This is my brother Harry." Molly gasped as she noticed Harry trying to hide behind his sister.

"Oh, it's like a miracle. It's wonderful to finally meet you Harry." Wiping away the tear that was threatening to fall she pulled him into a motherly hug. As she did she whispered softly into his ear.

"Don't worry, your parents told us about the spell Dumbledore cast. I know this will be strange but we'll all help."

Harry felt a huge amount of relief at her words. Although apparently Ron had missed out on his parents words as all of the rest of the Weasley clan took it as read that he knew them and it didn't phase them one inch.

As they walked through the front door, Ginny swooped down on them.

"Thank you so much! I was going crazy here on my own." Megan grinned.

"Don't worry about it. How would you like to spend the rest of the summer with me and Harry at home?"

"Like it? I'd love it!"

With that settled in a remarkably short space of time, the three of them set about packing Ginny's things. Harry was relegated to packing her school things into a dark wood truck whilst the girls sorted everything else. When they were almost done Ron barged into the room.

"Ginny, have you seen…what's going on?"

"Oh, hey Ron. I'm going to Megan's for the rest of the holiday."

"That doesn't explain why _he's_ in your room." He said, glaring at Harry who was sitting on Ginny's bed.

"He came with Megan and he helped to pack my stuff. Now would you get out, you're in the way."

Harry stood up and heaving the trunk onto his shoulders said,

"I'll take this down while you finish up."

"Thanks Harry." Ginny said smiling at him.

As Harry walked down the stairs Ron followed close behind him. As soon as he'd reached the hall he was shoved from behind and fell to floor with the trunk narrowly missing his head. Ron towered over him.

"Stay away from my sister, creep. She can do better than the likes of you."

"Don't you have anything better to do little brother?" a voice said from behind them. Ron looked up in surprise. Charlie walked over and helped Harry up.

"Go away Ronnikins. Dad wants help de-gnoming the garden." Glaring back at an equally pissed off Charlie he stomped off towards the garden.

"Sorry about that mate. He's afraid you'll damage his relationship."

"With Ginny?"

"No, his girlfriend Hermione." Harry almost laughed.

"Ron and Hermione? How long have they been together?"

"About a year I'd say."

Laughing they wandered into the kitchen to wait for Megan and Ginny.

"So why does he think I'll damage his relationship with Hermione?"

"Well, Ron took so damn long to actually ask the girl out he's now extremely worried about anyone who could break it up. Any other male for instance, which as you fit into that category, plus with the added fact that Hermione, Ginny and Megan and fairly close friends it scares him."

"Plus," Ginny said from the doorway, "He just doesn't like you. Mainly for what you said when you first met him. Not many non-family members talk to him like that."

"Yeah, well nobody upsets by sister without having to deal with me."

"You know, I think I was better off without an overprotective older brother. Don't you think Gin?"

"Oh I don't know. There might be some advantages to having him around." Harry blushed as she looked over to him.

"Gin, are you going to leave me to carry all this to the fireplace?"

She sighed and the two of them walked back into the hall to carry Ginny's cases towards the fire. It took a fair amount of effort but finally all the cases and all three people were back in the pub along the road from the Potter mansion. Dragging the cases along the floor, they made their way back to the house. As they walked through the door a houself appeared by their side.

"Cully, could you get these things up to my room? I don't think we can carry them."

"Of course Miss. Cully will be doing this straight away!" She bobbed a mini bow towards Harry and disappeared with the cases and trunks. Megan darted away into the house.

"I'll go and check that it's ok with Mum and Dad. Harry, can you show Ginny upstairs?"

"Sure." Turning to Ginny he asked,

"Do you wan to go the boring way or the fun way?" Ginny looked up at him with apprehension but finally said,

"The fun way."

"Come one then." Harry led the way outside to the broom shed. Well, what Harry called a shed would be called a huge building by most other people. They went in and walked along the rows of brooms on the wall. James had kept all of his brooms since he was a child. He had owned almost 30 brooms during his life and Lily had 5 of her own. Harry's and Megan's brooms were at the end of the room. He got his Silverfire down and walked back out with Ginny following him in confusion.

"Harry, how is a broom going to help."

"Just get on Gin." She climbed onto the broom behind Harry and they rose quickly into the air. After showing off a little to Ginny he flew up to his bedroom window and slowly manoeuvred his way in. Ginny almost fell off the broom when they landed on the floor. She sat shaking on his bed.

"Hey, what's wrong?"

"I, I've never been on a broom before."

"But, didn't you have flying lesson's in your first year?"

"Well, they were on, but for some reason I was always in the hospital wing."

Harry grinned.

"Mysteriously falling ill an hour before the lesson?"

"Something like that yeah." He laughed and hugged her.

So the next few weeks was spent as a family of five rather than a family of four and gradually Harry and Ginny got to know each other a lot. Well, Ginny got to know Harry a lot; Harry got to know her better than he already did. It was still taking a huge amount of effort to get used to people not knowing him and even not being the 'boy who lived' but he was slowly getting through it.

Ginny had started to get up with Harry and Megan to watch their practise sessions. She was amazed at the improvement in Megan from the last year. But then, who wouldn't improve with Harry for a teacher. He was a brilliant coach and helped Megan with everything. Ginny had toyed with the idea of asking him to teach her but dismissed it on the grounds of why would he waste his time? He taught Megan but they were family. She was just a friend. But after every practise session, Harry always swooped down to land by Ginny and took her up into the air for a ride. Sometimes they stayed up for hours at a time, just floating in the air watching time go by.

As the days trailed on Harry realised one morning that in two days he would be 16. The thought unsettled him for some reason by he didn't have time to dwell on it as Ginny knocked on his door.

"Harry, are you busy?"

"No, come in Gin."

She opened the door and walked in.

"What's up?"

"Well, I want to go to Diagon Alley to get some stuff for school, but I don't want to go on my own. I wondered if you'd want to come."

"Course I will. Just let me find my trainers." Within minutes they were walking down to the pub and into Diagon Alley. They spent hours just wandering around the shops, Ginny brought a few small items but nothing was of real importance. Harry began to wonder why she had really wanted to come but decided to just enjoy her company.

Ginny walked next to Harry and tried to make a decision about his birthday present. He hadn't shown a real interest in anything that she could get. At least nothing that would be at least a small bit personal. They strolled into the bookshop and Harry meandered into the Dark arts section. He noticed a very small section labelled 'Animagus', by small it comprised of two books. The first was on how to recognise Animagus' from normal animals but the second was a detailed account of how to become one. Then he saw why there were so few. The level of power needed was enormous. Most people just simply didn't have the magical capacity to manage it. He put the book back on the shelf, not much point buying it, he thought. I wouldn't have the power to pull it off. It was one of those moments that people have when they irrationally doubt their own abilities. His father had managed to become an Animagus and although Harry knew he was more powerful than James he still doubted it in himself.

He turned and walked out of the shop without a backward glance. Ginny however did not. She had been silently watching Harry and darted over to where he had been standing.

'Ah,' she thought to herself. 'So that's what he was so interested in.' she took the book to the counter and paid for it before running out to rejoin Harry in the sunshine.

"You got what you wanted Gin?"

"Yeah, I think that's about it."

"Then let's go home, my feet are killing me."

The next day Harry looked all over the house trying to find Megan. Not for any particular reason just that he had missed her company over the past few days. But she was no where to be found. But this was because Harry only searched the 1st three floors of the house and the grounds. He didn't think to look on the floor with his and Megan's rooms at all. This is where she had spent all day. She was sitting in the perfect room trying to make Harry's birthday present. She had some idea of what Harry would have to face before too long and she wanted to make something accordingly. Having already found the spells she would need she had now run into a problem. She couldn't use magic outside of school. Quickly, Megan ran downstairs to find her mother.

"Mum, can you help me make Harry's birthday present?"

"Of course honey. What did you have in mind?"

Megan took her hand and led to the room. Spread out on the floor were various designs for a bracelet. The final one that she had decided on was a seamless band, made of sky blue leather. Lily smiled at the leaf design that grew out around it. Megan was always one for the outdoors.

"I take it you would like me to make this for you?"

"Please, I wanted something that was personal, so at least it's going to have be thought of and designed by me. But there's one last spell that I found that I want you to add at the end.

"Well, give me a moment." Lily took a piece of knotted string in her hand and studying the design for the bracelet murmured the charm that Megan had found. Slowly, the string began to glow, surrounded by a blue light and with a flash it was a very expensive looking blue leather band. Megan squealed with delight.

"Now, what was the last part?"

"Well, sometimes I've seen him and I think it's when he's remembering what he thought was his life. He looks so sad and depressed that I wanted to do something to help. So I found this and it means that if when he's wearing it he starts to become upset or sad for any reason words kind of light up with this bright white light."

Lily looked at her daughter in surprise at the idea.

"That sounds perfect. What words do you want on it?"

"Courage dear one."

Her mother covered a smile at Megan's desire to help Harry.

"It sounds just the thing."

When Lily left 5 minutes later Megan looked with pride at the finishes present. True, her mother done the magical part but Megan knew that in school; using her own magic she could have done just as well. Plus the fact that would have been private between her and Harry. Although she had got the distinct impression from her mother that Lily though Harry was perfectly happy and would never face any hardships.

The next morning, Harry woke and realised with a jolt that he was a whole other year older. The though made him inexplicably happy and he bounced out of bed, downstairs and into the pool. He'd discovered the pool to his delight the week before. Now, at 6 in the morning with the sun already warming the water he dove in and spent the next hour being peaceful and happy. Just floating. He was sunbathing by the side of the pool when Megan came to find him. All he knew was that a shadow must had travelled over the sun and then his completely dry body got soaked again and she pushed him in. He came up spluttering to see Megan in hysterics on the side.

"Come on Harry. It's present time." Hearing this, Harry shot out of the pool and up to his room. He was dried and dressed in less than 3 minutes. Sitting in the very spacious living room was her parents, Megan, Ginny, Sirius and Remus, and in the middle was a very large pile of presents.

The first one he opened was from James and Lily. He tore off the wrapping paper to find a fairly large bird cage. James grinned as he saw the look of slight confusion on his son's face. He walked to the open window and whistled. Silently a small tawny owl flew in through the window and landed gently on James' arm. He brought her across the room and as he leant next to Harry the owl hopped onto Harry's shoulder. He reached up his hand to stroke the soft feathers and she playfully butted her head against him. He grinned at his parents.

"She's perfect. Thank you."

"What will you name her?" Lily asked.

"I think, Atlantia. It fit's somehow."

The next present was a new broom repair kit from Sirius.

"I figured it would go well with your broom."

Albus Dumbledore had sent him a crystal figure of a wolf with a note that said, '_for the future._' Remus gave him a large trunk that was full of books. As Harry poured over it he saw books from Muggle authors and well as Wizard history and mythology books.

"Thanks Remus!" Harry said enthusiastically. He'd grown to love books, spending a lot of time in the library but this would also make his room at least start to look lived in. Megan handed him her present. It was a small black leather box. He opened it to find the blue leather bracelet that she had designed. It had a flowing leaf design almost the whole way around the band and looked very good. He slipped it onto his wrist and it immediately shrank to fit his arm without falling off.

"Thanks Meg, it looks great." Megan smiled to herself feeling proud that he liked it. But inside she hoped that he would never see the added part of the gift.

The last present was from James.

"My father gave this to me when I was 16 so now it's your turn." He handed Harry and familiar light package. He gently took the paper off it and drew out the invisibility cloak.

AN: Review notes once again.

Jarno: If you'd paid attention to the books you'd know that the wand the Ollivander first gives to Harry is the one he had in the books. As he no longer need a wand that is the twin of Voldemort's I changed it. Plus, who says his wand need's to be impressive? His first wand wasn't particularly strong; it's the strength of the wizard that counts. Finally, the wand he ends up with is one of the wands the Ollivander tries in the books. Thanks for your review, but I prefer decent criticism rather than random crap.

Avius: Hopefully explained why Ron is crabby. Thanks as ever babe, love ya!


	5. Quidditch

Awakened 5

A few weeks after Harry's birthday Professor Dumbledore came to see him. They went out to the edge of the Potter estate to a small wood that Harry had found the week before. They talked as the wandered along the pathway.

"So, how are you coping with the real world?"

"It's, surreal. My family are amazing, and Ginny is as well. Mrs Weasley was really great about the whole thing. Sirius is not exactly the person I knew. He keeps trying to protect me or something, won't tell me anything about what's going on."

"He doesn't know what you have to do, it will come as a shock when he realises."

"Sir, could you explain your theory again? I don't think I really took it in the first time."

"Of course, the way it seemed to me was that somehow, whether by God or fate, you were placed into a waking dream that allowed you to grow up learning about our world. It forced you to confront Voldemort, and my belief is that the entire purpose of it was to prepare you to fight Voldemort in this world. I gather that you did defeat him in your last encounter."

"Yes, as soon as he was dead I was pulled here."

Dumbledore smiled.

"You our indeed the hope for this world, and I do not doubt you will do it admirably. Now, about your lessons starting in September do you know which subjects you would like to take?"

Harry grinned at the thought of going to Hogwarts, but it quickly faded when he thought of the grade limit that had been set for Potions.

"Well, I'd like to do Defence Against the Dark Arts, Transfiguration, Charms and, well Potions. But isn't there a grade boundary to get onto the course?"

"There is indeed my dear boy; you will need no less than Exceeds Expectations to be accepted for Potions at NEWT level. Professor Snape is adamant on that ground. Now, to be accepted for Auror training when you leave you need 5 NEWT's, I suggest you take Herbology which will go well with Potions."

With Harry's lessons settled Dumbledore apparated away leaving Harry to wander aimlessly on his own. His wanderings took him to the broom shed where he took his Silverfire and took to the air.

The last few weeks of the holidays flew by for Harry who was eagerly awaiting the start of the new term. Finally the day came to travel to London to catch the train. James took Harry and Megan down to the station and they made their way onto the platform. They said a brief goodbye before the two of them clambered into the train and started to search for a compartment. They quickly found an empty one and settled themselves in. In a matter of minutes they were joined by Ginny and they immediately started chatting. Almost as soon as the train started moving the door opened and Hermione entered followed by Ron. He grinned at his sister but froze when he saw that Harry's arm was slung round her shoulders.

Hermione sighed and shoved Ron into a seat. She sat down on the other side to Harry.

"Hi, I'm Hermione and you must be Megan's brother. You're coming into our year aren't you, what subjects are you going to be doing?"

"Erm, Potions, Transfiguration, Charms, Herbology and Defence. What have you taken?"

"Potions, Charms, Defence, Ancient Runes and Transfiguration. I guess we'll be in most of the same classes then."

As Ron watched them talk, he got angrier and angrier. Hermione noticed and glared at him.

"Honestly Ron, what on earth is your problem?"

"My problem, my problem! The only problem I have is you talking to this bloke like you're old friends without knowing anything about him. Paying more attention to him than to your own boyfriend!"

"Well, pardon me for wanting to make things a bit easier for him on his first day, and if you're going to be like this all year then maybe I don't want you for a boyfriend!" Hermione yelled.

"Well, maybe you should have gone with Corner in the first place!" All too soon, Ron realised his mistake as Hermione stiffened at his words.

"Hermione, I…"

"Just get out Ron." She whispered.

Ron looked at her in bewilderment.

"I'm sorry, but…."

Ginny stood and forcefully removed her brother from the carriage.

As soon as the door slide shut Hermione broke into tears. Harry awkwardly put his arms around her and she wept into his shoulder. He looked at Ginny questioningly.

"Hermione was friends with Michael Corner, Ron thinks she liked him. His family was killed over the summer."

At her words Hermione sobbed harder into Harry's shoulder. He comforted her and after a while the sob subsided. The rest of the journey was relatively uneventful. The evening was a blur to Harry; everything seemed to happen so quickly there wasn't enough time to take it all in. Hermione introduced him to Dean, Seamus and Neville who looked him over with interest. He found it harder and harder to act as though he didn't know them. Ron kept shooting glares in Harry's direction but every time he did he received three back from Harry Ginny and Megan. Harry spent most of his time trying to keep Hermione's mind off of the events from over the summer and away from Ron. When the came for them to go up to Gryffindor Harry was hard pressed not to punch Ron in the face. Somehow he managed it and fell asleep almost as soon as he went up to bed.

The next day after breakfast Harry walked with Hermione to his first lesson of the day. Double potions with Slytherin, although the class had only four people, Harry, Hermione, Neville and Draco. It was the lesson Harry had been dreading the most. From his previous experience he had no reason to believe the real Snape was any different from what he was used to. Although, admittedly he had been hoping that Megan's view of Draco was true to form. He noticed immediately that there was a difference as they walked straight into the classroom without waiting for Snape to arrive. Draco was already there when Harry and Hermione walked in. He was sporting a large bruise over one eye that reached down over his cheek. Hermione frowned when she saw.

"Draco, you've got to at least try and stand up for yourself."

He tried to glare at her but couldn't manage it without grimacing in pain. She laughed and stepped to one side.

"Harry, this is Draco Malfoy. The only decent Slytherin."

Harry stared at him incomprehensibly. Draco waved a hand in front of his face.

"Is he ok?" he asked Hermione.

Harry shook himself; it seemed Megan's view of Draco was true after all.

"Sorry, I was miles away. Are we the only people in this class?"

Draco looked around.

"Well, at the minute, yes. But Longbottom should be here as well. As if on cue Neville walked through the door.

He grinned at them all and took a seat next to Draco.

"Snape late as usual?"

Draco grinned.

"You know my god-father, always on time for everything."

"I'll take that as a yes then."

Draco laughed. Harry watched bewildered as the two of them fell into conversation. Hermione pulled him down onto a seat next to her. She began to get her books out. Draco and Neville did the same.

"Shouldn't we wait for Snape to tell us what to do?" Hermione shook her head and pointed to the board. Harry looked over and saw an ingredients list for what looked like a complicated potion. It was called dreamless sleep.

"We're making a sleep potion?" Draco rolled his eyes in exasperation.

"Why don't you look it up?" Harry looked over at him and saw he had his potions book open in front of him, reading the instructions. Feeling foolish he did the same. It was a tranquillising potion, designed to knock the victim out a period of roughly 24 hrs depending on the person.

After about half an hour, the two pairs were about a third of the way through making their potions when Snape walked in. He was greeted with hellos from Neville and Hermione and a nod from Draco. Harry watched astounded as Snape walked over to him.

"You must be Harry Potter. I'm Professor Snape, the Potions master at Hogwarts. I hope the talent for potion making runs in your family. Your sister is quite exceptional." Harry gaped at the praise for his sister. Was this really the real Snape?

He also saw Draco, out of the corner of his eye, grin at the mention of his sister. That was something to look into.

The rest of the lesson was almost a dream to Harry. As he took the bottle of liquid up to Snape who was marking papers at his desk he was greeting with a smile and more words of praise.

"Very good, I could see today that you excel in Potions. I'm curious to know why you only achieved an Exceeds Expectations and not an Outstanding on your OWL but never mind." Harry grinned; already he was getting used to the new form of Snape and liking it a lot. After the lesson he waited behind to talk to Draco.

"What have you got now?" he asked as they walked out of the classroom.

Draco looked at him in surprise.

"You do know I'm a Slytherin right?"

"Yeah, but Hermione said you a decent guy, so did my sister and I trust her opinion."

Draco grinned.

"She said that?"

"Yeah, that's kind of what I wanted to talk to you about. Have you got a lesson now?"

"No, I'm free till lunch."

This time Harry grinned.

"Me too, want to go fly?"

"Of course!" The two of them headed out to the grounds talking.

"So what did you want to talk about?"

"Do you like my sister?"

"Wow, you don't beat about the bush do you?"

"Not when it comes to Meg, no. I'm a tad protective of her."

"Fair enough. Yes I do. Do you think she does?"

"Honestly, I don't know. I know she likes you as a guy but I don't know if it's romantic like or just like like. You'll have to find that out on your own."

Draco's face fell.

"Just ask her, it's not that hard. Now are we gonna fly or not?"

Without a word Draco set off at a sprint towards the broom shed. Harry grinned and sped after the other boy. Draco was already inside when he got there. Harry walked inside to see Draco lifting up a golden coloured broom. It was almost the twin of his own but with subtle differences.

"What make it is?"

"It's an Amberfire. The predecessor to the new Silverfire that came out last week. It's the best broom in the school." Harry grinned at that statement and wandered over to his where his own broom stood in the shadows.

"I'll meet you out there." Draco called over his shoulder. He walked out leaving the door wide open. Harry's grin grew wider. He straddled his broom and rising into the air flew like a bullet out of the shed and up into the sky. Draco watched open-mouthed at Harry's broom.

"I don't think yours is the best in the school any more Draco." Harry yelled to him. Draco stuck his tongue out at the other boy. Harry grinned again and flying higher, went into the wronski feint. Draco watched in amazement as Harry pulled out of the move less than a metre away from the ground.

"You should try out for the Gryffindor team." He said when Harry was back level with him.

"I intend to. But, would you mind helping me teach Ginny? She's come on a lot, but I'm not a hugely good teacher."

"I'd love to."

And so the weekly training sessions began. They'd practise from 7 in the morning until they got bored. With Draco's help Megan came on in leaps and bounds. Soon, it got to be that neither Harry nor Draco could teach her anything more so they spent the time playing or just lounging around. Both boys had the same ambition to be an Auror when they left the school, so consequently they were doing almost identical subjects. With the exception that Harry was doing Herbology when Draco had Ancient Runes. Because of this, the two of them came to have a steady friendship. It was something that Harry had never even dreamed would happen, but Draco had become his best friend. The difference between the real Draco and the one he knew was astounding.

When the try-outs for the quidditch team came up, both Harry and Megan were bags of nerves. Megan because she was so anxious to prove herself and Harry, well, just because.

They arrived at the pitch much too early, the team weren't even there. So the two of them took of and just flew aimlessly around. Harry decided to get rid of some of his nerves by doing the wronski feint. As he pulled up about half a metre from the ground he looked up and saw the Gryffindor team staring at him in amazement. Well, with the exception of Ron. He was glaring at Harry with a look of resentment.

"If you've finished showing off Harry we'll start. The positions open on the team are as follows, chaser, beater, seeker and beater. We'll be starting with Seeker." Harry looked around. He was the only person standing in front of Ron, the rest had moved to the stands. Ron glared at him again.

"As you're the only person who wants it Potter, I guess you're on the team. Just don't screw up." Harry turned to look over at Megan and Ginny and grinned with his thumbs up. They grinned back and Ginny walked over to him.

"I'm up next for beater," she said as she neared him. "Wish me luck!"

Harry hugged her and she moved over to stand with the other beater applicants. There were about 5 of them. Ron sent each one up onto the air and let the two bludgers go.

"Hit them towards the goalposts!" he yelled up towards each one. The first four managed to hit all of the bludgers that came close to them but only one managed to direct any towards the goals. Then it was Ginny's turn. She set off into the air and Harry could tell immediately that she was nervous. As the first bludgers shot towards her she swung wildly at it, missed and it hit her in the head. She slipped from her broom and fell towards the ground. Harry ran out onto the pitch and managed to slow her fall by letting her fall on top of him.

"You ok Gin?"

"Just a bit dizzy that's all."

Ron came storming over.

"What the hell was that? Are you trying the make the name Weasley a laughing stock. We have a quidditch reputation here."

Harry glared at him.

"Leave her alone idiot. It's not as if she did it on purpose!"

"If we didn't need a seeker so badly I'd hit you Potter. Get off the pitch Gin, and get that head looked at, you might have concussion. If you plan to try-out again next year, I suggest you get a lot better."

With that he stood up and walked off the pitch. Harry helped Ginny up and together they made their way off the pitch. As soon as they were in the stands the chaser try-outs started. There were 7 people waiting to try-out for the position. After waiting patiently in line Megan finally got to the front. Ron looked at her and laughed.

"You're here again? Jeez, you must be a sucker for humiliation. All right, you know the drill. Try and get as many shots past me as you can. The best so far is 20 out of 35. At least try to get one past this time."

Megan glared at him and shot off into the air. Ron followed her and tossed her the quaffle. To his surprise she caught it one handed and flew up to the goalposts. Ron took his position and yelled,

"Start!"

Filled with determination, she hefted the ball and threw it as hard as she could towards the left post. Ron swooped to catch it but missed and it went in. Harry whooped and Ron threw it back to her. It carried on, sometimes she was a blur even to Harry but Megan outsmarted Ron every time and scored 35 out of 35 times. The stands filled with cheers and Megan flew down to the stands to hug her brother. Ron stayed motionless in the air staring in disbelieve at the change in her flying ability's.

Katie and Angelina came over to where Megan was with her brother and Ginny.

"Well, I don't know how you did it Potter but that was incredible. Welcome to the team."

Megan screamed and threw herself on the two seventh year girls.

"We practise every Thursday night from 7 till 9. See you two there."

Megan walked of with the two girls and they started to discuss tactics leaving Harry and Ginny to make their way to the hospital wing.

"Hey Gin,"

"Yeah?"

"Would you like some flying lessons?"

"Oh, that'd be fantastic. Do you know anyone who'd want to help me?"

Harry face fell. She hadn't even thought that he'd meant himself.

"Well, I really meant me, but I'm sure Draco would give you some pointers if you'd rather."

"Are you serious? I thought you meant you knew someone who would. I'd love it if you could teach me."

He grinned.

"Well, that's settled then. How about early Saturday mornings?"

During the first few weeks of term Harry gradually became good friends with Ginny, Hermione and Draco. Harry and Draco could be seen together after most of their lessons either in the library or by the lake talking. Draco was the only person Harry told everything about his life. He also became mates with the other boys in his dorm, Neville, Seamus and Dean. Life was almost what it was before he was woken. With one exception. Ron, it seemed, could not accept Harry as a person let alone a friend. He blamed Harry for breaking himself and Hermione up and was trying his best to keep Harry away from Ginny. This would have worked if Ginny had not seen through her brother completely. She had been playing chess with Harry one evening when Ron approached her to play exploding snap with Seamus and Dean.

"No thanks Ron."

"But…"

"I'm busy."

"Of course you're not. It's only Potter."

Ginny eyes flashed and she stood up and faced her brother.

"What the hell does that mean!"

"Gin, it's obvious what he's doing. Trying to take you away from your friends, like he took…"

"Don't you even think about saying that again! Harry did not break you and Hermione up. You did that all by yourself. If you hadn't been so stupid and selfish you'd still be together. You can't blame other people for you own mistakes and if you're so damn upset about the whole thing why aren't you trying to get her back!"

"Ginny, I…"

"Oh save it Ron. I don't want to hear it. Just go away and leave Harry alone."

She sat down and Ron turned and walked slowly up the stairs to the boy's dormitory.

"You know, I could have defended myself." Harry said in amusement.

"I know. I just wanted to yell at him. He's been acting like an idiot for too long."

"You certainly yelled at him. Although I doubt it'll do any good."


	6. More Quidditch!

Awakened 6

The days slowly trailed by and Harry settled into his lessons. What took time was adjusting to the fact that Remus was the defence teacher and had been for several years. But it didn't take long before they were good friends. After one particularly fun lesson of practising fighting a Bogart purely for the hell of it, Harry waited behind to speak to the professor. He'd already broached the subject with Megan and Ginny and they agreed with him wholeheartedly.

"Yes Harry." He said when the class had filed out.

"Sir, I was wondering if you might be able to help me set up a defence club for people wanting to learn things outside of class."

Remus looked at him thoughtfully for a moment.

"I assume you have a venue in mind?"

Harry grinned.

"Of course, the room of requirement."

Remus looked at him in surprise.

"I'm even going to ask how you know about that room, when almost none of the other professors do. How can help you with this?"

"Well, you know the people here better than I do; you know who is likely to be light or dark. Plus, being the Defence teacher you'll know who's likely to need the help out of class that I can offer." Harry looked at the Professor hopefully.

"I'll think about it Harry. That's all I can say." Harry's face fell but he still held out some hope as he left the classroom.

Remus watched him leave with a smile on his face. He would do great things.

That afternoon Harry had Potions which was rapidly becoming his favourite subject. He and Draco were the best in the class by far; something that Hermione was finding it difficult to come to terms with. He walked into the classroom to be greeted with hello's from Hermione and Neville who were already there. Snape was late as Harry was quickly getting used to as a regular occurrence. He sat down at the back of the room, as far away from Hermione and Neville as he could possibly have sat. Hermione looked over her shoulder at him questioningly but he just shrugged.

Moments later Draco walked in and came to sit next to him. After a few minutes of working on his potion Draco looked across at Harry who was staring into space and absentmindedly tapped a piece of parchment with his quill. Draco craned his neck over Harry's shoulder to see what he was writing. It was a list of what looked like defence spells.

"Harry?"

"Hmmm? Oh, hi Dray."

Draco sighed.

"Harry!"

"Huh? What it is?"

"What are you doing?"

"Oh, I'm just making a list."

"Well, I can see that. What's it for?"

"It for a defence club I want to start, with Remus' help. For people to learn stuff outside of class that might be useful and to get better at things they already know."

Draco leaned forward with interest.

"What _kind_ of things do you intend on teaching?"

It wasn't until half an hour before the end of the lesson when professor Snape walked in that they realised they had done no work on their potion. Both boys scrambled for the ingredients they needed. They had almost caught up with Hermione and Neville by the end of the lesson but hadn't quite finished which earned them a disapproving look from Snape.

"I'm disappointed in you boys. You had plenty of time to finish this potion. What was it that was able to tear your attention away from the lesson?"

Harry looked at Draco who nodded imperceptibly.

"Well, we were making a list Sir." He said, handing it to Snape.

He looked at the list with interest.

"What is the purpose of this list may I ask?"

"It's for a defence club that I want to start, with Professor Lupin's help of course."

Snape looked at Harry with a mixture of pride, admiration and a small amount of jealousy that he hadn't thought it of before now.

"This is a very good idea Harry. Come and see me later and I'll be able to add some spells to this list of yours."

Harry grinned at him.

"Thanks Sir!" and with that the two boys ran out of the classroom. As they left Draco looked over at Harry.

"Flying?"

Harry laughed.

"You read my mind."

A very short while later the two of them could be seen flying around on the quidditch pitch chasing each other.

The next day, Harry began to teach Ginny the basics of each position, each with a relatively low amount of success.

"This is ridiculous!" Ginny yelled after they'd been practising for about an hour. "I'm hopeless at everything we try!"

"Hey, we haven't tried everything yet. Come on, let's try you as a Keeper."

Reluctantly Ginny climbed back onto her broom and flew towards the goals"Right," Harry called once they were both hovering around the goalposts. "Just stay on the middle post and see what you can block."

Ginny nodded nervously at him. Harry flew back a few broom lengths and hefted the ball. He leant and aimed around Ginny into the hoop. As soon as the ball had left his hand Ginny had moved into it's path and caught it neatly. Harry looked at her and grinned.

"See, wasn't so hard was it?"

"I suppose not." She threw the ball back at him and for the next hour Harry threw it towards the goals. Ginny caught it, again, and again. When they were both exhausted they flew to the ground and sat on the floor. Ginny's face was beaming with delight.

"Look's like we've found the perfect position for you Gin. Next week I'll drag Dray out of bed so we can work two on one to try and get past you."

"Ron's not going to be happy."

Harry laughed.

"Well, he'll just have to get over it won't he. Come let's go back to the common room, I'm nackered!"

They made their way back to the Gryffindor tower, which for seven am was unsurprisingly empty, and collapsed on one of the sofas. After a while of just sitting in silence Harry poked Ginny in the side. All the response he got was a murmur from Ginny as she shifted closer to him. She'd fallen asleep. Harry smiled, and letting the exhaustion from the practise take over he drifted to sleep as well.

Harry was awoken several hours later by someone yelling very close to his ear. Blearily he opened his eyes and saw Ron standing by the sofa yelling very loudly at Hermione who was attempting to calm him down. Then he realised what had got Ron so worked up. He was lying fully stretched out on the sofa with a pillow propping up his head and Ginny was effectively lying almost completely on top of him with Harry's arm curled around her. Harry smiled and brushing some hair away from her face he gently shook her awake, calmly ignoring Ron who was close to frothing at the mouth. Slowly she blinked her eyes open and looked up at him. She blushed as she realised the position that she was in but after noticing her brother standing glaring at Harry and shouting at them both she snuggled even closer and put her arms around him.

"What do you want?" Harry asked him coldly.

"How dare you ask me that! Get away from her!" Ron lunged forward and grabbing Ginny's arm, he dragged her off the sofa onto the floor. Harry jumped off the sofa and leant to help her up. She shook his hand off and red with humiliation she got up off of the floor. Ron reached out to take her arm and pull her away form Harry but before he had even got close to her Ginny had taken her wand out of her pocket and sent the petrificus totalus curse at him. Harry smirked as Ron fell to the floor, rigid as a piece of wood. Ginny took one last look at the sight of her brother on the floor of the common room, his eyes madly searching for someone to do the counter curse, and left the room. Harry looked down at him,

"I really don't think you're going to be able to go to any of your lessons today Ron. I doubt that anyone here wants to face your sister in another bad mood if she knows that someone has helped you after what you just did to her." He looked up at the people that were standing around them and saw with satisfaction that everyone was nodding in agreement. Even Hermione was standing with her arms folded glaring at Ron.

"Come on everyone," Nevilles voice carried over everyone's heads. "There's nothing more to see here and I for one am hungry for breakfast." There was a mass exodus as everyone in the common room left through the portrait hole. Harry was the last to leave and as he looked back he saw Ron's eyes on him and he saw the hate that was beginning to grow towards him. He shook his head in despair at the loss of his oldest and best friend and silently left.

During the next few weeks Ron's attitude gradually got worse until he no longer stayed in the same room as Harry. Unless of course Ginny was in the room as well, in which case he stayed and watched the two of them like a hawk even if they weren't with each other. Ginny had begun to ignore her brother from that day and hadn't spoken one word to him, although she had laughed at his efforts to get the work he had missed as no-one had released him until after dinner in the evening. Even at quidditch practices Ron acted as though Harry didn't exist.

Eventually, about halfway through the term, Gryffindor had its first quidditch match. It came as no surprise to Harry that it was against Slytherin. He had joked with Draco about flying against him but didn't realise that it would be the first match he played. The day of the match he stood with the rest of the team and tried to keep his nerves in check. He had never been nervous about playing before, except maybe before his first match in his first year but this was different. It was as if he had something to prove to the people in the stands above him. None of them except Draco, Ginny and Megan had ever seen him fly and he wanted to prove what he could do. He hadn't even really tried that hard during practise with the team, wanting to keep something back for when they were playing properly. As such, the team hadn't tried to rely on him at all and they were better players than his old team because of it. Suddenly, Ron received a signal and he led his team out onto the pitch. They flew in formation around the edge above the stands and settled into their positions to start. As soon as the whistle blew Harry sped up to hover above everybody else. He methodically began to search across the pitch. He saw a flash of gold several times but he was a fraction too slow to look onto it. The Gryffindor chasers were doing an excellent job below him and already the score was 70-20 to Gryffindor. Harry hated to admit it but Ron was very good in his position as Keeper and was saving many goals that the Slytherins were managed to try and put past him. Finally when the score had reached 120-50 to Gryffindor Harry finally managed to spot the snitch and tore after it. Draco noticed a moment after Harry did and sped after him. But just as he had reached out his hand to try and reach it a Slytherin beater hit a bludger at him and it hit him square in the chest with such force that it knocked him off his broom. Draco looked round and raced to try and catch Harry before he hit the ground but Professor Snape had already slowed his descent and he landed softly on the sand. Draco looked back for the snitch but it had vanished. He looked over at Harry who was slowly getting up and after receiving several glares from his team-mates flew back into the sky. Madame Hooch flew over to him and checked him over.

"Are you all right, Potter?"

Harry nodded and climbed back onto his broom amid cheers from the stands. Ron tried not to look impressed at Harry's resilience and ordered the rest of the team back into their positions. Harry flew back into the sky trying to put the pain in chest to the back of his mind, at least until the end of the game. Slowly however Gryffindor began to lose their hard won lead and soon the score was in Slytherins favour at 170-140. Harry was scanning the sky and suddenly caught sight again of the snitch. He immediately took off after it and it shot into the sky, high above the stands. Harry raced after it with Draco close behind him when the snitch suddenly changed direction and sped towards the ground. Harry and Draco quickly followed it and they sped after it. Harry thrilled in the exhilaration of the chase and he loved diving on his broom. As they neared the ground Draco tried to harden his resolve but his nerve failed him and 10ft from the ground he pulled up. Harry carried on in his dive and a foot from the ground he pulled up his broom and raised his fist triumphantly in the air. The golden wings were flapping as he lifted the snitch up to show the crowds who erupted with cheers. It was a deafening sound but Harry didn't care. He had proved what he could do.

With Gryffindor winning 290-170 thanks to Harry he turned into a celebrity in his house and also many people from Ravenclaw and Hufflepuff stopped him in the corridors to congratulate him. That evening in the common room Megan jumped on him and hugged him, almost crushing his newly repaired ribs that Madame Pomfrey had fixed after the match.

"Meg, please. Be careful, it hurts."

"Oh God Harry, I'm so sorry. What was the damage done by that bludger?"

"Four cracked ribs and a lot of bruising. The ribs are all fixed but the bruising's still there." Megan's face fell at the thought of causing her brother more pain but he slung an arm round her shoulders and ruffled her hair.

"Don't worry about it, just don't hug me as hard next time okay? At least not until it's gone down."


End file.
